Amazon whale dies

A lost whale that swam 800 miles up the Amazon River died after a failed attempt to capture it and transport it back to the ocean.

The 18-foot minke was stranded on sandbars at least twice after it was first spotted last week in the Tapajos River, a tributary of the Amazon near the jungle city of Santarem.

Biologists and vets managed to examine the animal on Sunday, but the whale got away and was found dead yesterday on a sandy bank.

The group had been trying to contain the whale in a small area of river while arranging for a ship to take it back to sea.

Rescuers, including local villagers, abandoned efforts to secure a net around the whale on Sunday because it became agitated and risked injuring itself.

Scientists said the whale was in the river for at least 15 days, and experts had expressed confidence it could survive because there have been cases of whales spending two months in fresh water.

Biologists conducted an autopsy on the whale to determine the cause of death

The minke is the second smallest of the baleen whales after the pygmy right whale.

The International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee estimates there are about 184,000 minke whales in the central and north-east Atlantic Ocean.